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Lacrima
__NOEDITSECTION__ Mandragora (ghouled plants) produce lacrima or 'mandrake tears'. Lacrima is mixed with blood to create lachrymalis, or 'blood wine'. Lachrymalis= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Effects on Kindred' For every glass of Blood Wine you have within the same scene, roll a reflexive Stamina + Resolve roll, modified by how many glasses you have already had. Thus your first roll is Stamina + Resolve; your second roll is Stamina + Resolve - 1; your third roll is Stamina + Resolve - 2. The Hardy merit applies to these rolls. A failure on this roll applies a cumulative -1 penalty to any Dexterity-, Intelligence-, and Wits-based dice pools. (Defense is also reduced accordingly). These effects fade at the rate of one die per hour. As an approximate guideline: *Blood wine consumed, but no negatives: A warm, feel-good sensation. *-1 penalty: Tipsy. *-2 penalty: A good buzz. *-3 penalty: Drunk. *-4 penalty: Without inhibition. *-5 penalty: Belligerently intoxicated. *-6 penalty: Incapacitated drunkenness. *-7 penalty: 'Black-out' drunk. When the penalty equals or exceeds your Stamina, you must begin rolling for addiction. This is a straight Resolve + Composure roll, rolled each time the penalty increases at a cumulative -1. If you are drinking Daeva lacrima, this roll suffers an additional -2 penalty. 'Ghouls' Immediately throw up any ingested lacrima. 'Humans' Humans treat lacrima as a poison with Toxicity equal to the regnant's Blood Potency plus number of tablespoons drunk, with the effects varying according to the regnant's clan: *Daeva: Gain the Wanton Condition for the remainder of the night. At sunrise the lacrima burns through the mortal's system, wracking him with pain and inflicting two points of lethal damage. *Gangrel: Take 1 point of lethal damage and receive a -2 penalty to all rolls for the next 24 hours from numbness, weakness, and general lack of mental clarity. *Mekhet: Take 1 point of lethal damage and receive a -2 penalty to all rolls for the next 24 hours from numbness, weakness, and general lack of mental clarity. In addition, suffer nightmarish hallucinations for the remainder of the night. *Nosferatu: Take 1 point of lethal damage and receive a -2 penalty to all rolls for the next 24 hours from numbness, weakness, and general lack of mental clarity. In addition, the lacrima works as a contact poison, inflicting the effects of Dread Presence on the mortal for the remainder of the night. This manifests as a stinging sensation in the flesh and auditory hallucinations of loud, high-pitched shrieks, as well as a general sense of fear and unease. *Ventrue: Take 1 point of lethal damage and receive a -2 penalty to all rolls for the next 24 hours from numbness, weakness, and general lack of mental clarity. In addition, all Resolve and Composure rolls suffer a -3 penalty for the remainder of the night. |-|Mandragora= __NOEDITSECTION__ - Types= __NOEDITSECTION__ These are the most common kinds of Mandragora, but do not represent a complete list. 'Roses (•)' Almost all varieties of rose are hearty enough to sustain becoming mandragora, regardless of the size of the plant, length of thorn or style and color of the bloom. Roses take on a few unique conditions once imbued with a vampire’s essence. First, a mandrake rose’s bloom changes. No matter what its original color was, the bloom becomes what some growers call a black rose, even though the color is actually a deep, dark crimson. Second, a rose blooms only after being fed blood. A blood-born bloom continues for a full month after the feeding. Third, a mandrake rose becomes more susceptible to a dark fungus found on the leaves called blackspot. Blackspot doesn’t kill the rose (as it might if it were not mandragora), but it renders some leaves warped and bent with shadowy spots crusted upon them. Roses require one Vitae per month to sustain. 'Teasel (•)' Teasel is a thistle with small, sharp spines and little violet flowers. It’s not a particularly attractive plant, but some Kindred favor it because it doesn’t need to be cut or otherwise damaged for the gathering of lacrima. This plant (also sometimes known as Venus’s Basin) has several upper leaves that join around the stem and form a cup. Once, the Greeks favored drinking the collected rainwater from this botanical basin for its unproven medicinal properties. As mandragora, water doesn’t necessarily collect in this cup, but lacrima does. Over the period of a week, this floral bell fills with the rusty sap. This sap figures into a few of the more esoteric rituals of the Circle of the Crone. Teasel requires one Vitae per month to sustain. 'English Ivy (• or ••)' Also known as Hedera helix, English ivy is an invasive plant that winds about trees and other flora and is sustained almost like a parasite. The natural version grows quickly, carpeting a forest floor in what is generally termed an “ivy desert,” destroying any biodiversity present. The mandrake version of this plant is somewhat different. The process stunts the ivy’s out-of-control growth and tends to reduce its potential spread to that of 10 square feet or so. Also, the vine itself tends to grow fatter (sometimes as fat as a man’s thumb) to help contain the mandrake’s lacrima. Starting with a young and small patch of ivy requires only one Vitae per month. Larger patches (those that measure more than three feet square) require two. 'Water Lily (• to •••)' This particular family is aquatic in nature, and so has a worldwide distribution. Yet given its aquatic nature, the average water lily is a damned costly variety of mandrake to maintain. Only the most determined of the Damned bother with the upkeep of water lily mandragora, and even then, they ensure that their enemies find a home deep between the rhizomes of their beloved pond plants. Euryale ferox is an Asian species notable for the sharp prickles that cover its exposed parts. Regardless, the water lilies that survive ghouling take on some disturbing traits, such as the drifting of their floating leaves towards anything possessing blood. Their prickles will actively bend around small animals and the gigantic Victoria amazonica lily can actually bump unaware swimmers hard enough to pierce their flesh with the prickles covering the edge of its leaf, effectively drawing blood. The rhizomes that form the base of the water lily will reach up for any prey that passes nearby, and can entangle a drowning man with little effort, should he succumb to their sharp points. Depending upon the size of the plant, it can require anything from one to three vitae per month to live. When sent to sleep among the lilies, a person is usually bound in rope and weighed down with a heavy weight at either end. The weights are rarely retrieved. 'Black Locust (•••)' Few trees seem to be able to sustain the mandrake condition. Many affected trees die — their bark turning black and their leaves withering off the branch. The process takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Moreover, not many Kindred are willing to invest the time and Vitae necessary to feed a whole tree. One tree remains a certain survivor, however, should a vampire choose to take the step of making it mandragora. The black locust tree is an aggressive, robust tree. Its bark is darkly colored and lined with small thorns. The branches are crooked and twisted (appearing doubly so in winter, when the leaves are gone). Black locusts become even stranger looking as mandrakes. The branches twist further, the thorns grow one or two inches longer, and the leaf covering becomes sparse and inconsistent. Some Ordo Dracul Kindred are said to have a brooch featuring a silhouetted image of a thorny black locust. The reasoning for this is as yet unknown. Such trees require three Vitae per month to sustain. '''Willow (•••) In England, willow trees are associated with bad things. Old stories tell of willow trees stalking behind travelers at night and snapping their necks with their drooping boughs. Yet elsewhere, they are valued as symbols of wisdom. Whatever the case may be, the genus known as Salix has been found to be a valuable source of mandragora by the Kindred that know of plant ghouls. Their loose boughs mean that they can more easily wrap around a mortal's neck, and their ability to take root from cuttings means that a potential mandrake can be placed anywhere that's moist and/or cool. The southern gentry of the Invictus take a particular liking to willows, as do the eldest of the Chinese Invictus. A willow tree requires three vitae a month to sustain it. }} |-|Lacrima= __NOEDITSECTION__ Lacrima is a rust-colored fluid that runs thick, less like fresh blood and more like older, congealing Vitae. It even smells like thickening blood, exuding an acrid odor of decay. Much like sap, it is found in the stalks, branches, and veins of all Mandragora. The taste, while not exactly pleasant, is queerly compelling. It's also accompanied by a rush that makes lacrima extraordinarily popular among Kindred, and does not require the Blush of Life to either enjoy or keep down. Lacrima is harvested by activating the Mandragora. Unlike other retainers it takes only one hour to activate, regardless of how many dots the Mandragora has. However, the Mandragora can only be activated to harvest lacrima once per week. This requires an Intelligence + Medicine + Mandragora roll, and results in a tablespoon of lacrima for each success, up to a total value of the Mandragora's rank. (Thus a 3-dot Mandragora cannot give more than 3 tablespoons of lacrima in a single week.) A single tablespoon is sufficient lacrima to create one glass of lachrymalis (when mixed with a cup of blood), and when given as a gift this is the standard quantity. A bottle contains enough for five glasses. The typical mix is 5:2 - 5 tablespoons of lacrima to 2 points of blood. The supernatural properties of lacrima keep blood from going bad, allowing lachrymalis an indefinite shelf-life.